Tubman 200


2


dark energy for Harriet Tubman BY ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS


1822 the Astronomical Society of London meets to write down what they know of stars


in eastern shore Maryland araminta screams into an unmeasurable life


1835 sap dark root of love opening out your skull praise the girl who watched the comet and knew praise the girl who tracked the north star and knew praise the girl who studied herself and knew one thing:


sky is a map


1844 expand the universe


open the wet reflective road blood bashed temporal lobe


let everything that is not love escape your skull like so much stardust


1849 and while they chart the pricks of light use night love night be night free night write night


if colonialism is a starving hunter and slavery is a splintered pencil go


become untraceable


1851 if all you breathe is freedom they can’t hear you if all you take is freedom they can’t steal you if all you feel is freedom they can’t find you if all you give is freedom they can’t stop you if all you love is freedom they can’t catch you


girl you look just like freedom they can’t see you


1863 sing to the river wake the people sing to the rice fields wake the land sing to the trees the vines the moss sing to the river the people come running buildings burning in their wake like stars


1865 walk away from the broken promise walk away like you walked before walk away from the muddled battle walk on into your own front door


freedom is the people you choose the air you breathe


1896 sometimes the meeting room is a night sky you see infinite versions of the universe looking back at you in each blinking face


1910 the comet comes back around the ground has changed


34 | SPRING 2022 www.feminist.org


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